artist • maker • writer

insecta: pen + ink

Through my drawings and assemblages, I hope to encourage respect and appreciation for the many benefits insects bring to Earth’s fragile environment. We humans sometimes view insects as creepy, crawly, hairy, scary critters who sting, bite, swarm, and consume. We occasionally think we could live without them.

But what would happen if they disappeared? At first, insect-eating animals would die from lack of food; animals who eat insect-eaters would then also starve. Flowering plants and crops would not be pollinated, and all flora would lack the nutrients and aerated soil they need to grow. Eventually, larger animals at the top of the food chain, including humans, would face extinction.

Insects make up >80% of all species on Earth. Eliminating them from our planet would have a huge and deleterious effect on the web of life. (Besides, they were here first. Homo sapiens appeared some 300 million years after the first insects.) We might be uncomfortable around them, but without them we would cease to be.